“For several decades the most dynamic part of the US economy has been Texas. Rich people, middle-class people, and working class people are voting with their feet and moving to Houston and Dallas and Austin. Whites, blacks and Hispanics are moving to Texas. Not because of oil wealth (Louisiana has even more oil per capita), and not because of climate (California and Florida are more pleasant), but rather because it best epitomizes the US economic model. And they are leaving states with fiscal policies more to the liking of progressives like Yglesias and Krugman. ” — Scott Sumner, professor of economics at Bentley University, discussing a post by Mankiw that Yglesias responded to

“Also, for the last decade, Las Vegas is the fastest growing city in the United States. White Americans, blacks, mulattoes, quadroons, and even octoroons are all voting with their feet and moving to Nevada. And it’s not because of the great casino buffets (Maine’s Indian casinos offer buffets with lobster), but rather because Las Vegas best epitomizes the American model of legalized gambling and prostitution. And they are leaving states with the kind of prudish prohibitions favored by Dreher and Douthat.”

“Sumner errs in not providing the full picture. While it is true that Texas (which shares a long border with Mexico) has gained population by leaps and bounds, Sumner fails to mention that Michigan (butted up there next to Canada) has suffered a precipitous loss of population during the same period!

Clearly, this indicates the true disposition of Americans, as gay, straight, trans-gender, pan-sexual, androgynous, and even gender-fluid Americans all choose to live closer to Mexico. And it’s not because of the super-group Mana and their enticingly Police-like vocals (Celine Dion, a Grammy-winning diva, is Canadian), but rather because Texas is the state next to the country that best epitomizes the economic model (defined by me) of the United States – Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. Meanwhile, folks are leaving the states close to countries favored by Frum and Steyn.

“Yglesias obviously does not understand what it means to say that Texas epitomizes the U.S. economic model, so I guess someone should explain it to him. As a professional economist, to me it is obvious why Texas would be considered the epitome of the American economic model – it really needs no explanation. And, therefore, I haven’t bothered to give one.

Likewise, there doesn’t seem any need for me to provide any kind of data to support the notion that people are moving to Texas primarily for the economic environment provided by that state. After all, it should be obvious on it’s face. So, I won’t provide one of those either.

“Has Sumner ever heard of the San Francisco Bay Area? Here are a few excerpts from the Wikipedia article:

The Bay Area is renowned as being among the most liberal areas in the country.

The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the wealthiest regions in the U.S, due to the economies of San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

Also, Sumner lives is Massachusetts – not exactly a quickly growing state, or one Sumner might consider to be the “epitome of the U.S. economic model”. So, why does he live there? It seems to contradict his thesis.

“For several decades the most dynamic part of the US economy has been Texas. Rich people, middle-class people, and working class people are voting with their feet and moving to Houston and Dallas and Austin. Whites, blacks and Hispanics are moving to Texas. Not because of oil wealth (Louisiana has even more oil per capita), and not because of climate (California and Florida are more pleasant), but rather because it best epitomizes the US economic model.”
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This was all that I was responding too.

As for the rest of what ever arguements that they are having? No thanks.

Texas certainly has its attractions for the people to encourage those migrations for the past decades. After the long period of economic stagnation due to the civil war, Texas was seen as an opportunity by the US administration to fill in the economic gap. This quote from Scott Sumner simply refers to the ever growing population within the state of Texas, Houston being the perfect example.